Behind the Badge: A Transformational Talk with Police Chief Tyson Cheek on Revamping Sanger's Police Force

Discover the groundbreaking changes unfolding within Sanger's Police Department as Chief Tyson Cheek takes us behind the badge in this transformative discussion. From tackling staffing shortages with an eye for dedicated talent to implementing a dynamic command structure, Chief Cheek's journey from interim to permanent fixture at the helm provides a rare glimpse into the inner workings of law enforcement. This episode promises insights into the revitalization of community policing, where proactive engagement and educational outreach are just the beginning of forging stronger relationships between officers and residents.

Equipping our officers with more than just the standard gear, this conversation unveils the commitment to integrity and transparency that is revolutionizing our force. We take a deep look at the enhanced technologies that have been introduced, such as tasers and stop sticks, and dissect the rigorous recruitment process that ensures the ethical bedrock of our team. Chief Cheek articulates the philosophy that guides our department's conduct, and how our strategy seeks to maintain the highest standards of policing, bolstered by advanced training and a community-driven approach.

Wrapping up with a heartfelt acknowledgment of the support from our listeners, we reflect on the ethical landscape of Sanger's Police and the proactive strategies shaping its future. Chief Cheek leaves us with a sense of pride and optimism for what's ahead, as we continue to grow alongside our ever-expanding community. Tune in to get a pulse on the initiatives that are not only enhancing public safety but also instilling a sense of pride in our North Texas town. Your support fuels this journey, and we invite you to keep engaging with us on the 266 Express, where every conversation is a track toward a more connected and secure community.

You have been listening to The 266 Express, the official podcast of Sanger, TX. IF you have comments or suggestions, please send them to dgreen@sangertexas.org

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:07

Welcome to the 266 Express. I'm John Noblett here with Donna Green. Donna, who do we have today?

Speaker 2: 0:14

Today we are lucky enough to have our police chief, Tyson Cheek Hi everybody.

Speaker 3: 0:19

Hey chief, how are you doing, john? I'm doing well, thank you, it's a great day in Sanger.

Speaker 1: 0:24

It is a great day. Every day in Sanger is a great day, with a few exceptions, because we know we all have bad days, but maybe more good than bad, we think.

Speaker 3: 0:34

A lot more good than bad. I used to have a chief that would say there's no such thing as a bad day. He was a liar, but for the most part that things have been wonderful so far.

Speaker 1: 0:45

Good, good. So let's talk about your reception. We know that well. I know most certainly that you came on as an interim chief. You know we had a transition. A lot of people are very aware that we had a transition unexpectedly and you were able to step in as interim and during that time that you served as interim, you really locked in and were very, very happy that you decided to stay on as the permanent chief force. Thank you. How has your reception been since you've been with the department?

Speaker 3: 1:21

Well, the officers have been wonderful. I don't know if most people know that there was I don't want to say mass exodus, but you lost nearly half the police department in a short span of time, shortly before and after the chief left. Those officers that stayed are dedicated to this city. They love this city, they love the work that they do and when I came in, I think the most important thing in talking to all of them was that they just wanted the department to get better and from my viewpoint, the important thing for them was we needed to get good people hired quickly so they wouldn't have to keep working the masses amount, mass amount of time that they were working over time and stuff. It's not healthy, it's not good and it's not good for a police department. So hiring good people was was my priority and I'm thankful to say that by October 1st, by the end of the budget year, we were fully staffed and again we selected good people to do the job for the citizens.

Speaker 1: 2:34

Yeah, you have. I mean, I'm I'm very impressed with the amount of talent that you've been able to attract and bring on, and there's a lot of experience over there. Tell us a little bit about your, your what we refer to as your command structure chief.

Speaker 3: 2:50

Well, what I've done was I've taken the administrative position that was originally an assistant chief they're the under chief Rhodes that he had an assistant chief and then a lieutenant and we didn't really need that level of upward executive level thinking. So I reduce that level that that assistant chief to another lieutenant. So now I have two lieutenants worse, but basically my second in commands. One is in charge of administration and the other is in chopper in charge of patrol operations. Lieutenant Justin Lewis, who was basically doing the chief's job between the time whale and left in the time I'd arrived is, has been wonderful and and because coming from Fort Worth to a department, like saying or is is literally you're speaking two different languages in terms of operations and administration, I lean heavily on him for Learning how the city functions and how the police department operates inside that sphere. The other lieutenant is lieutenant Rick reflagle, who is a retired Fort Worth officer and he came in as an officer here Before he.

Speaker 3: 4:12

We did the promotional, the selection process for the lieutenants and he was by far the most qualified for the put in for the position. He is now our operations patrol guy and so between the three of us we generally when an incident comes up or when, when we're pondering what needs to be done or administrative decisions. We we work very well together. We talk daily and the officers love their administrative staff, their executive staff. They know that they can come talk to any of us and the communication between us and the officers, I think, is just the biggest thing. That that helps us as help put us on the right path. And so, with that, when you came in, what were the?

Speaker 2: 5:00

things that you immediately identified that you might want to change or we need improvement on and, conversely, you know what were the things that are really working great Well again, personnel.

Speaker 3: 5:16

The people that were here were, or were, just dedicated to the city and dedicated to policing the city in such a way that that people felt safe. It's just they were overworked. So the primary thing, like I mentioned before, was staffing. We had to get good people here and we had to get them here quickly.

Speaker 2: 5:36

Now that we've done that.

Speaker 3: 5:38

the next thing that we need to start doing is working on making sure the officers have technology that they need, making sure that they have proper equipment, making sure that that that the equipment is up to date and and that everything looks or presents itself as a as a professional department.

Speaker 1: 6:00

So, chief, we hear community policing batted around quite quite a bit in our circles. What is what is community policing mean, and what is community policing mean to you?

Speaker 3: 6:13

So when I started with the Fort Worth Police Department, thomas Wyndham was the chief of police there, and while community policing actually started in other cities than Fort Worth Primarily there was a Kansas City experiment and some others Thomas Wyndham helped develop community policing in Fort.

Speaker 3: 6:29

Worth to the point where Fort Worth was thought as I was thought of as one of the leaders in community policing and departments used to send their people to us to learn how to do community policing.

Speaker 3: 6:45

And the way I learned community policing was is that you had officers who are dedicated to actually interacting with the community, not just when we have to do calls, but the idea is for officers to be able to deal with citizens in such a way that they're not it's not primarily when we're in calls for service. It's that community policing is your police department helping educate the citizens or the businesses or the schools in crime prevention and and then helping set up means like crime watches and things of that nature where citizens can get into crime. You've got a city, you've got a city of around 10,000 people here and you've got 11 officers on patrol day and night at various times, obviously with three people or four people on a shift. We can't be everywhere in the same. So the community has to be our eyes and ears and community policing is all about that interaction to make the community better, to cooperate with the community and have the community cooperate with us to help make their city a safer place to live.

Speaker 2: 8:05

So you talk about your officers and the equipment making sure they have the right equipment, making sure they're properly trained. So what are your strategies to ensure that they are properly trained and they are properly equipped?

Speaker 3: 8:18

So technology and policing is advancing at a high level. From one year to the next, what you may have may be outdated. So when you're researching these things, you might need to make sure that you get quality technology that will last for most of the lifecycle of stuff, for instance, tasers. We just recently acquired new tasers. The lifecycle of a taser system is probably about five years before they come up with the newer, latest, greatest model, which the advances offer more safety and that sort of thing for officers. So acquiring that kind of technology and researching it to make sure that you're not throwing good money after bad products is a priority.

Speaker 3: 9:11

We've recently acquired stop sticks to help reduce pursuits, the length of pursuits and that's big, because although we don't want people getting away, we don't want pursuits that drive all the way into Oklahoma to stop to catch criminals. We also have body cam systems and the body cam systems, the technology. It's not just the cameras themselves, it's the software that goes with the body cam systems and the car cam systems, and what that allows you to do in terms of being more open with the public. Can you show a video but edit things out that they shouldn't see, or do you have to hold the videos back because there's information in there you can't see, you can't block out, you can't edit those videos with. That's the sort of thing. That's good that you bring that up, chief.

Speaker 1: 10:09

what are your views? I mean there's a lot of issues that various departments deal with with transparency. I know just they're my administration here. We've made a commitment on our side really to be as transparent as possible with the general public and I know sometimes we take a little bit of heat because people still there are people that don't understand some of the challenges we have and they don't believe we're transparent enough. But we try to be as transparent as possible. We know it's a little different with public safety, especially in your role as police chief, and how policing works. What are your views on transparency and what other things are you doing to be more transparent with the public?

Speaker 3: 10:54

Well, it's my belief that we're transparent, my belief that we're public servants and that we should be able to give the public everything that we can. I don't think barring restrictions from state and government levels in terms of what can be released. I think we ought to release most everything we possibly can as quickly as we can. It never serves well if you can avoid not giving people information. The longer you hold stuff that they should probably have access to, the more suspicious they begin they begin to get and the less trust there is in government.

Speaker 1: 11:40

No, we would agree with that.

Speaker 2: 11:41

Yeah, absolutely so. You did come in. You hired a bunch of people really quickly. So what is your approach to recruiting, hiring and retaining your staff?

Speaker 3: 11:56

Recruiting, hiring, retaining is pretty well, the standards are pretty well set.

Speaker 3: 12:01

You post the positions and then basically it's just a matter of going through the doing the interviews.

Speaker 3: 12:08

I always want to interview people because I always want to look at them face to face and, as we're asking them questions, get a feel for not necessarily if they're being deceptive, but if they have an understanding of their history and how decisions they have made impact the things that they've done.

Speaker 3: 12:28

In smaller departments like this and I don't use this term negatively, but policing is sort of transient and that officers go from one department to another department, versus in a larger department, like where I came from people get hired and try to stay until retirement. I would like to develop that type of atmosphere here where people want to stay until they're able to retire. But in order to do that I have to see people face to face and then we do an in-depth background research, talking to former employers, and it's basically, I would say, seeing if people have a comprehension of what their faults may have been in their last position and if they've had the wherewithal to actually try to fix any of those faults before I'll hire them here. Growth is always what we're looking for growth and then honesty and integrity and that sort of thing.

Speaker 1: 13:29

Chief, if somebody was interested in becoming a law enforcement officer, specifically in Sanger, where would they go? How would that process work for them?

Speaker 3: 13:40

Well, in Sanger we're not to the point where we're hiring people and putting them through a law enforcement academy. So first off, they have to already be T-Coll certified T-Coll is the licensing agency for police officers in the state. Then if we have vacancies they'll be posted on the city website and I believe they're posted on one of the state websites as well for law enforcement. And then it's just a matter of sending in the application with the resume and then initiating the process with us.

Speaker 1: 14:12

What's that website, Donna? Do we remember?

Speaker 2: 14:16

Well, you can always go to SangerTexasorg.

Speaker 3: 14:19

SangerTexasorg. Yeah, SangerTexasorg.

Speaker 2: 14:22

Yes we do know that one, but you can look at the job tabs.

Speaker 1: 14:28

If there's positions available, regardless of what department, they'll be listed there first. So ethics is a big question, chief with policing. Ethics is a big question in public service in general, but especially in policing. That question is one that we've discussed numerous times here in my time here. What do you do right now? What is your strategy? I guess is the term what is your strategy on ethics and ethics compliance for your department?

Speaker 3: 15:07

Well, I guess the premise is that ethics, as it applies to discipline, when we have a complaint or we have an issue which is, by the way, which has been extremely rare most of the citizen complaints that we've gotten since I've been here I would say actually 99% of them are just somebody who's unhappy with they got a ticket or they're making a complaint on an officer.

Speaker 3: 15:35

When you look at the video, it's just absolutely not true, which is why video is an amazing thing. I've not had an issue here with an ethics type violation, but the things that the one of the things that I like to do is. I like to be the example of what I want an officer to be. In other words, I won't not tell them the truth, I won't sugarcoat anything. If there's an issue or if I have a rule or something I want complied with, things are set pretty straightforward. There's no equivocation in what I'm saying Again, in terms of it's hard to actually kind of say what we have done because there hasn't been an ethics related issue. If there were, whatever it was would be investigated properly and dealt with accordingly.

Speaker 1: 16:39

For us sometimes that's not always internally correct, chief. Yeah, depending on the type violation that might exist, there are channels and resources that the police department has to look into those things.

Speaker 3: 16:55

If I can use an example with local recent history, one of the officers was investigated and the former chief appropriately had it investigated by Texas Department of Public Safety. So if it's an egregious act that rises to that level, then that's something we would avail ourselves of.

Speaker 1: 17:17

And the only reason I bring that up is to make people aware that that the police department does everything within their power to make sure that they are operating in the public's interest. There, you know, you hear Scuttlebutt every once in a while on the streets about this guy or that guy and they're sweeping this under the rug or that under the rug, and that's just not the case.

Speaker 1: 17:41

And so and I think it's fantastic because the philosophy is the same right Be the person you want your people to be is the best thing that we can do for the success of whatever endeavor we've undertaken.

Speaker 3: 17:59

Yeah, and one of the things that I do, no matter where I've been in, whatever position of leadership that I've been in, is I make the effort to constantly ask not only my leaders, my supervisors, but the people I'm working for what is it you see that I'm not doing right? What is it you see that I can do better? And I take that feedback and incorporate it into the things that I'm doing as best I can. I am not the epitome of leadership in any way, shape or form, and I know that, that, despite all the leadership training that I've had and all the positions that I've had, there are things that I could do better, and each new circumstance allows for change and allows for growth.

Speaker 2: 18:49

So, with that. So what are your overall goals and visions for the department, We'll say for the next two years?

Speaker 3: 19:02

Again, it basically ties to growth for the department along with the growth that the city is going to have over the next two to five years. We've talked about projections in growth and population of in the next four, six, eight years, of almost doubling the population of the city of Sanger. To some extent, I would rather see the department and the city be proactive in the growth of the department along with the city, rather than having to play catch up five or six years down the road. That includes officers, vehicles, pay and benefits to the officers. Those things are all going to have to be addressed in the coming years and I mean I know the city manager has plans for that kind of stuff already and it's my goal to work with them to make sure that we do well with that.

Speaker 1: 19:54

All components of what we're trying to do to prepare for growth. Yeah, absolutely. Is there anything else we haven't discussed that you'd like to convey to the public chief?

Speaker 3: 20:03

I want to thank the public. I've been here since June-ish and I've attended numerous of the public events celebration, the Christmas event and some of the other things. We will be doing more community type meetings like Coffee with a Cop. We'll be doing National Night Out this year and I hope to see most of the public air. I can't even express my gratitude of how welcome I felt by not only the city government and the people in the department, but by the citizens that I've interacted with since I've been here. I haven't had a negative comment yet I mean, it's a chief's position and I'm sure there may be some coming. But yeah, the citizens have been wonderful and I want this department to represent the city as best it possibly can and I want it to be a department that the city can be proud of.

Speaker 1: 21:01

Well, chief, I have no doubt, under your leadership, that those are all achievable things.

Speaker 2: 21:05

Thank you, yes, thank you. Well, chief again, we want to thank you for coming on and being with us today.

Speaker 3: 21:12

Absolutely.

Speaker 2: 21:12

We really appreciate your time. Thank you for having me, certainly, and you've been sent to the 266 Express.

Speaker 1: 21:18

I'm John Noblett with.

Speaker 2: 21:19

Donna Grain.

Speaker 1: 21:20

And thank you so much for listening into what's going on in our small little North Texas town and if you have an opportunity, would you rate our podcast for us? We've been doing this a while now. Maybe a little rating would help us out. Subscribe, if you would, because we'd like everybody to know what we know and say in your life is good.